Julia Zastava. Love in an ugly room

The museum consists of 7 spaces flowing into each other. When the viewer reaches room 6, he sees a glow behind a transparent plastic curtain in the doorway. This is room number 7 - an ugly room. The presence in the space of additional guide walls, a window and an emergency exit saves her from applying the concept of “white cube”, which is traditional for the exhibition hall.

Museum Art4 presents a new project by Julia Zastava “Love in an ugly room”. The exhibition will feature graphic works by the artist, specially prepared for a solo project in Moscow. Pencil drawings on neon paper depict scenes in which polymorphic characters try to play roles during casting on a comic strip. The history of the pseudo-narrative is devoted to the processes of transformation, issues of narration, the ideas of supernatural and sensuality.

To maintain the effect of “broken quotation”, the exposition is based on the grouping of drawings, leaving a large space of an “ugly room” empty. The pattern grows out from under the window, the pattern rests against a corner, and the pattern on the door hinges deviates from the wall by 45 °. The space and work in it become an integral protagonist to the sound and movement of the fountain liquid on the floor in the center of the room.

Julia Zastava was born in Moscow. Lives and works in Vienna and Berlin.

In 2018, she graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts in Vienna and in 2006 the department of film and multimedia directing at the Institute for Television and Radio Broadcasting. M.A. Litovchina, Moscow.

Her practice includes drawings, videos, installations and performance.

The artist’s first solo exhibition, “My Personal Hell,” was held at the House Cultural Center in 2006. In 2014, Julia’s “Shimmering” project was presented at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art as part of the V Moscow International Biennale for Young Art. In 2019, an exhibition of drawings was held at the Akonzept Gallery in Berlin. And in January 2020 she took part in a dance performance at the Tanzquartier Halle G, Vienna. Her works are in collections: Garage Museum of Modern Art (Moscow), Currel Collection (London), Sammlung Pabst (Vienna), Raphaël Lévy (Zurich), Sdv arts & science foundation (Moscow), MUSA Museum Startgalerie Artothek (Vienna), LENTOS Art Museum (Linz).